RELATIVE CLAUSES

There are two types of relative clauses: Defining and Non-defining

Defining relative clauses are essential to “define” which person or thing the speaker means.

Non-defining relative clauses give “extra information” about the person or thing the speaker refers to but we already know which person or thing the speaker means.

Examples:

-          I have two cars. One of them keeps breaking down and the other doesn`t.

The car that keeps breaking down is in the garage. (This sentence has a defining relative clause because I need to specify which car)

-          I have just one car and it keeps breaking down.

The car, which keeps breaking down, is in the garage. (This sentence has a non-defining relative clause because although I don’t need to specify which car, I want to give extra information)

Here is a chart

DEFINING

	People	Things
Subject	WHO THAT	WHICH THAT
Object	WHO WHOM THAT No relative	WHICH THAT No relative
Possessive	WHOSE	WHOSE OF WHICH
Prepositional	WHO …+ preposition WHOM…+ preposition THAT …+ preposition No relative …+ preposition Preposition+ WHOM	WHICH …+ preposition THAT…+preposition No relative…+ preposition Preposition + WHICH

NON-DEFINING

(NO omissions!    NO that!    ALWAYS  between COMMAS!)

	People	Things
Subject	WHO	WHICH
Object	WHO WHOM	WHICH
Possessive	WHOSE	WHOSE OF WHICH
Prepositional	WHO…+ preposition WHOM … + preposition Preposition + WHOM	WHICH… +preposition Preposition + WHICH

WHAT includes a relative pronoun and its antecedent

WHICH refers to the whole previous sentence or idea 

EXAMPLES

DEFINING

The man who/that robbed the bank is called Smith.

The man who/whom/that/----- I saw is called Smith.

The papers which/that are on my desk are not mine

The report which/that/----- you sent me is not good enough.

The man whose car I was driving is my boss.

The woman to whom you talked/that you talked to/you talked to is the manager.

The pen with which you’re writing/that you’re writing with/you’re writing with is mine.

The relative pronoun can be omitted when it is NOT the subject of the relative clause

NON DEFINING

Jack, who used to live next door, went to live abroad.

Jack, whom/who you met yesterday, went to live abroad.

The strike, which lasted 10 days, is now over.

We’re staying at the Grand Hotel, which Ann recommended to us.

My boss, whose husband also works for the company, is very strict.

Jack, to whom you talked yesterday, has been promoted.

My home town, in which I’m still living, has a very important  fishing  port.

WHAT & WHICH

Did you hear what they said?

Jim passed his driving test, which surprised everybody.

WHAT  includes the antecedent and the relative. It means the thing/things that

WHICH refers to the whole idea expressed before. In other words, its antecedent is the previous sentence.


For a good explanation of  the difference between DEFINING and NON-DEFINING relative clauses click HERE

You can also watch this video, which has a simple but clear explanation of these relative clauses:

For an exercise to see if you understand the difference between these two types of relative clauses click   HERE